It’s a toasty week here in Portland. I’ve been taking solace in reading a lot of stuff about the North and South Poles; I recently snarfed down the super fun, “Jules Verne on acid in the arctic” novels Aurorarama and Luminous Chaos by Jean-Christophe Valtat. I’ve likewise had fun cracking the deadly North Pole route through the mobile game 80 Days (and, no surprise – the author of that game, Meg Jayanth, loved Aurorarama).

Best of all, my talented and hilarious studiomate Terri Nelson has been gearing up for an honest-to-gosh artistic residency at the South Pole at the end of the year. To prepare for the trip she’s been doing a ton of amazing scientific illustration and getting a lot of very specific inoculations and exams. She’s been chronicling the experience at her blog PolarSouth.com!

Much is afoot behind the scenes at Family Man HQ. Print quotes for volume 2 are coming in, and they’re looking excellent. I’m excited to finally pick a vendor and get this show on the road!

Speaking of book projects: my studiomate and kindred spirit in obscure enthusiasms, Lucy Bellwood, is finally putting out a collected edition of Baggywrinkles, her comics about life onboard sailing ships (both contemporary and historical). Her infectiously goofy, lively, and downright fun cartooning sucks you in, and even if (like me) you could get seasick in the bathtub you will come out wanting to sign up for a tour on the Lady Washington.

Lucy has sailed (pun intended) past all of her Kickstarter goals in under a week, so the book is already funded and will be coming out in full color! Hop on board before all the cool reward tiers disappear!

I have an oddball book recommendation for you all! I’ve been enjoying Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre (with a name like that she had to become a novelist, don’t you think?). Literary historical fiction with some unsettling slices of sci-fi bleeding in through the edges, it follows the lives of two real people – Sir Kenelm Digby (the person you unknowingly picture when somebody says “Renaissance Man”), and his wife Venetia Stanley.

Dubious alchemy, grand scientific discoveries, 17th century beauty products, and court intrigue get tossed together with David Bowie references and pithy quotes from supermodels. It’s a nice little slice of surreal not-quite-history, and if you like this comic, you might enjoy the novel, too. Have at!

]]>2Dylanhttp://www.lutherlevy.com/?p=21962015-07-17T07:00:00Z2015-07-17T07:00:00Z]]>]]>0Dylanhttp://www.lutherlevy.com/?p=21942015-07-10T05:18:40Z2015-07-10T07:00:42ZHello my dears! I hope July is treating you well so far. I had a giant bowl of cold udon noodles for dinner last night and the temperature outside finally stayed below 100F, so I’m going to be riding that high for quite awhile.

I’m experimenting with uploading page images to Patreon at a higher resolution. Ideally I’ll hit that magical $500 goal and be able to overhaul this here main site so it is no longer too rickety to accommodate retina-screen-friendly images, but if you’d like to live in the future, or just save yourself a little squinting when reading the comic on your iPad, the option now exists! Thank you for your support, sweethearts.

]]>0Dylanhttp://www.lutherlevy.com/?p=21932015-07-10T07:00:00Z2015-07-10T07:00:00Z]]>]]>0Dylanhttp://www.lutherlevy.com/?p=21902015-07-02T22:47:35Z2015-07-03T07:00:00ZHello my dears! I hope you aren’t stuck in a heatwave like yours truly. Whoosh! Thank goodness I have a studio in an air-conditioned office building or I’d be leaving sweat-streaks on the Cintiq. As it is, drawing a snowy landscape feels like a bit of a cruel joke.

Fun news in comics this week – Kate Beaton’s new picture book, The Princess and the Pony, is out! It is adorable as heck, has lots of good messages for kids as WELL as some pony fart jokes, and it will probably delight anybody you show it to.

And, on a technical note – Patreon is having a bit of a website snarl-up this week. $10+ folks, your podcast will go up as soon as it settles down. If you’ve been impacted by the payment system hiccup, you don’t need to do anything to fix your account or correct your pledge; they’re already on the job!